San Juan and St. Thomas excursions...

We’re cruising on the Glory in several weeks and already had some excursions pre-booked.

Have any of yous guys been on these since the hurricanes?

- Eat, Drink, Walk: Puerto Rican Flavors @ San Juan

- Fast Cat Turtle Bay Snorkel & Honeymoon Beach @ St. Thomas

If so, any issues we might want to know about. Or are they operating normal now?

Thanks!

We’re cruising on the Glory in several weeks and already had some excursions pre-booked.

 

Have any of yous guys been on these since the hurricanes?

- Eat, Drink, Walk: Puerto Rican Flavors @ San Juan

- Fast Cat Turtle Bay Snorkel & Honeymoon Beach @ St. Thomas

 

If so, any issues we might want to know about. Or are they operating normal now?

 

Thanks!

I have never done excursions in San Juan, all you need to do is walk off the ship, go across the street and get on the free city shuttle, take it to the old fort at the point, don't get off when you first see some of the old fort, wait until you have gone alongside of the water for awhile. or just stay on the shuttle and make a full loop, and then get off at spots along the way that you would like to see.

I have never done excursions in San Juan, all you need to do is walk off the ship, go across the street and get on the free city shuttle, take it to the old fort at the point, don't get off when you first see some of the old fort, wait until you have gone alongside of the water for awhile. or just stay on the shuttle and make a full loop, and then get off at spots along the way that you would like to see.

However, I'm not sure if the shuttle or shops/restaurants are a viable option after the hurricane. Unless you can find out for sure, I'm thinking I'd stick with the excursion, as they will know where to take you.

Just an update if anyone cares. We went on these excursions and...

The Eat Drink Walk excursion was great. Visited 2 restaurants and a place that made Piña coladas. It was a small group, so almost like hanging with a bunch of friends. Walked all over the place and it seemed like everything in Old San Juan was back to normal.

Fast Cat Turtle Bay Snorkel was a bust. The catamaran was nice, the guides were very friendly, and the free rum punch flowed for hours. But snorkeling was a waste - Didn’t see a single turtle and nothing to see, in regard to coral. Honeymoon beach was a dump. Not sure it looked any nicer before the hurricanes. The catamaran did not go right to the sand, so everyone had to walk about 15 feet from the boat in waste-deep water to get to the beach. Not a big deal, but we were walking on gravel and stones, not silty smooth ground.

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Thanks for coming back to report.

Glad to hear Puerto Rico is on the mend.

Hoping to see the Rain Forest our next cruise.

I wouldn't bother with booking an excursion in SJU. Old SJ is an easy place to walk and every place has pina coladas (and each place invented the pina colada!). The ship basically docks in the old part of the city. Grab a taxi and visit El Convento -- a several-hundred-years-old convent-turned-boutique-hotel across the street from the cathedral for tapas and the best sangria you'll ever have. El Morro is large fort/museum you can visit. Stroll through Old San Juan and discover little shops and restaurants. Easy, and you don't have the pay the ship for that excursion.

St Thomas is another place where you don't have to book an excursion. You can do a beach day on your own. Heck, you usually have time to take the ferry over to St John where there is a gorgeous beach (but there's no loungers/umbrellas/bars because it's in a national forest).

We’re cruising on the Glory in several weeks and already had some excursions pre-booked.

 

Have any of yous guys been on these since the hurricanes?

- Eat, Drink, Walk: Puerto Rican Flavors @ San Juan

- Fast Cat Turtle Bay Snorkel & Honeymoon Beach @ St. Thomas

 

If so, any issues we might want to know about. Or are they operating normal now?

We did the PR tour last month. We had been to San Juan many times but took a Carnival tour to ensure that we would not have problems with closed businesses. We did have a well taught and energetic guide, and were not disappointed at all. The old city was in very good shape. There was damage but it was pretty limited in the city. Knowing that, you could do it yourself if you cared. There are many free self-guided pamphlets and recordings available online. We went to a colada place on the main street right across from the dock heading off to the left toward the fort, right before the CVS. I will say that 3 of the places including the colada place weren't open except to let our group in. You would have to find your own restaurants to try. In hindsight, I would take the tour again. It was worth it but not necessary.

Thank you for taking the time to come back and give us your review.:)

I may give the San Juan tour a try. Sounds like a lot of fun!

Just an update if anyone cares. We went on these excursions and...

The Eat Drink Walk excursion was great. Visited 2 restaurants and a place that made Piña coladas. It was a small group, so almost like hanging with a bunch of friends. Walked all over the place and it seemed like everything in Old San Juan was back to normal.

 

Fast Cat Turtle Bay Snorkel was a bust. The catamaran was nice, the guides were very friendly, and the free rum punch flowed for hours. But snorkeling was a waste - Didn’t see a single turtle and nothing to see, in regard to coral. Honeymoon beach was a dump. Not sure it looked any nicer before the hurricanes. The catamaran did not go right to the sand, so everyone had to walk about 15 feet from the boat in waste-deep water to get to the beach. Not a big deal, but we were walking on gravel and stones, not silty smooth ground.

We were in San Juan, St. Thomas, Grand Turk, & Half Moon Cay last week (Feb 17-24) on the Glory.

ST THOMAS: I agree with the reviewer above that the Fast Cat Turtle Bay Snorkel was a bust. Our tour group did see ONE lonely little turtle, but hardly any fish at all, and not really any coral to speak of. Water was murky, not good visibility really. We swam over a wreck, but you could not see much. Saw lots of sea urchins with the longest, pointiest spines I have ever seen. They definitely tried to let the rum flow freely to make up for the lousy snorkeling. It was strong rum punch! This excursion was just "something to do", but it was WAAAAY overpriced for what you get. The other Carnival excursions did not look any better. We wanted to go to Trunk Bay in St John, but there are still no water lines, no working toilets (just porta potties), and the snorkeling is said to be poor since the hurricane. St Thomas was definitely my LEAST favorite port of the four.

SAN JUAN: I had extremely low expectations going in but it ended up being my favorite port. We did not book a Carnival excursion & had a nice breakfast before leaving the ship. Since we were probably some of the last people off. There were still tons of white tour buses trying to book people for their 1-hour island tours. But it kept raining off & on, so I guess the walk-up business was not that good. The prices started at $25 per person, but by the time we meandered off the ship it was down to $15 per person! Fantastic price, so just $30 for the 2 of us. Can you believe it? We had to wait about 15 minutes while the guy found 12 more people to fill up the tour bus. But it was an awesome tour. He took us all over town, and we saw everything, the govt buildings, the art, the statues & monuments, the forts, the new business district, the old part of town with the cobblestone street & the cute shops & restaurants. He answered questions, explained the history. Really fantastic. Better than any other Carnival excursion we took last week. I ended up walking back to the Old San Juan section to take more photos, stop for coffee, and buy some handmade Christmas ornaments. It was wonderful. I would love to go back there again & stay 3 or 4 days. Old San Juan is very charming!

GRAND TURK: We were originally booked on a Carnival snorkel excursion "ultimate snorkelling tour" or something like that, but when we got off the ship we found out it had been cancelled for rough seas/current/something. But the other Carnival snorkeling tour was still going out because it had a different snorkeling spot. It was $10 more than the Ultimate snorkeling tour, but it included the stingrays and they make a conch salad. I had read the reviews on it, and it had some negative reviews, but in all honesty it was the ONLY decent snorkeling excursion we had last week. We went to 2 different snorkel sights saw lots of fish and coral. The conch salad and rum punch was tasty. The last stop was a deserted island with stingrays right at the beach. One of the guys from the boat held up a humungous stingray and lots of people took photos with it, or pet it, or kissed it, or whatever. We were there at the 3rd stop for probably 35-45 minutes with the stingrays. If you were not a fan of stingrays you could either stay on the boat, or explore the beach or hike the deserted island. It was pretty cool. Definitely 100 times better than the St. Thomas snorkel excursion.

HALF MOON CAY: We brought our own snorkel gear, and it's a gorgeous beach. I tried snorkeling for over 30 minutes all the way out to the deep dark water, and did not see EVEN ONE FISH. Not one. How is that even possible? Nice beach day, though.

---- Rene